Why should it take a disaster to make this confluence of values so evident -- for me, for any of us? Why, since we share so much at a deep and personal level, is it so hard to share much of anything at a political level?

Oh, and one other thing: Earworms are apparently quite contagious. Sometimes the mere mention of a song triggers it in another person. So with my apologies, anyone feel up for a chorus of 'Landslide' about now?

With the landslides in Ladakh, one cannot help but wonder at the karma of it all -- the karma of the Tibetan people, who've suffered more than their share over the past 60 years, of whose homes were spared and whose were destroyed.

Find out where the parties are. Both sides. The Republicans usually have an open bar and the Democrats don't. If it looks like a landslide, nobody's going to be at the McCain parties, and you can get a few beers or cocktails before heading to the Obama bash.

More and more, it is looking like Virginia will be the state that decides Election Night in Obama's favor. Sure, it could be Florida or Ohio, but my guess is that the vote-counting is going to take a while in both of them,